Acknowledgement
by EmeraldMoonStar
Summary: Sakura is feeling undervalued by her teammates and decides that she will force them to see her worth, once and for all. Boy, are they gonna regret underestimating her. T to be safe.


Haruno Sakura had had it.

She was 17 years old, the Hokage's prodigy of an apprentice, saved several people from wounds deemed too far gone by other medics, defeated an Akatsuki member, and many predicted she would surpass her master in a few short years. However, none of this caused her teammates to acknowledge her strength.

Sasuke had returned a few months prior of his own freewill. He hadn't told her much about why, but Naruto had informed her about a chat with Itachi and a trip with Orochimaru during the war. That fact alone has her mind swarming with questions, none of which had been answered. Sakura wasn't there when Sasuke was found, either. No, she was saving the future head of the Hyuuga clan from almost certain death. Apparently, Sasuke had just handed himself over without a fight. The lack of the highly anticipated fight of Naruto vs. Sasuke had led to the pair of them sparring most days of the week while Sakura watched and healed them at the end.

* * *

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'?" Naruto was yelling frantically and waving his arms for emphasis. Even Sasuke slightly raised an eyebrow at the unexpected response. Naruto and Sasuke had just had a particularly brutal sparring session. Both were in pretty rough shape, a few cracked ribs, bruised bones, black eyes, but nothing life-threatening.

"I am not healing either of you two. Perhaps if you two would spar with me properly, I'd heal you," Sakura replied, sounding rather bored. Naruto's mouth hung open while he waited for a logical response to come to him. Oddly, Sasuke spoke up first.

"We don't want to hurt you."

Naruto turned to Sasuke, horrified. Naruto knew that he wasn't the smartest tool in the shed, but even he could not believe that the genius Sasuke could be so stupid. He could see the metaphorical steam coming out of Sakura's ears and she was shaking with barely contained fury.

"You don't want to hurt me," she repeated quietly. Deciding against screaming at the two of them and bashing their heads together, she quickly composed herself. "Well, until either of you spars with me for real -yes, I know you pull punches, Naruto- I'm not going to heal you two." She turned to look at Sasuke. "And Sasuke-kun, don't bother going to the hospital. I've already ordered every medic-nin and medic-nin in training not to heal either of you." Sasuke's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, proving to Sakura that he had indeed been thinking that. "Just let me know when you're ready!" After giving them both a sweet smile, she turned around and headed back into town with a spring in her step.

Naruto and Sasuke both turned to each other and wordlessly decided to check the hospital anyway. The thought of Sakura having such power at the hospital made Sasuke have to repress an uncharacteristic snort.

* * *

"I'm sorry, but Haruno-san has ordered that no one is to so much as lay a hand on you two." A look of horror crossed Naruto's face while Sasuke blinked in surprise. So much for calling her bluff.

"But, can't you heal us with, I don't know, a foot or something 'tebayo?"

The medic-nin just smiled a little and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Haruno-san ranks higher than I do. Unless you can convince Tsunade-sama, there's nothing I can do." Naruto smiled while Sasuke scowled at the medic. Naruto bounced out of the hospital as much as his ribs would allow, while Sasuke's aura was foul.

"What's your problem, teme? I can definitely talk Baa-chan into helping us," Naruto explained animatedly. Sasuke, however, would not be convinced.

"Tsunade treats Sakura like a daughter. She won't side with us, dobe." Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Sure, he was in a significant amount of pain, that he could deal with. It was the not being able to train for at least a week and a half that was angering him. As much as he hated to admit it, he was in no condition to train, and it would do more harm than good.

Naruto sighed, "And there is no way I am hitting Sakura-chan full force, I'd kill her! Looks like we will have to wait this one out." Sasuke grunted his assent. This was going to be one miserable week.

* * *

Sakura knew the boys would cave. She knew one would come, begging her to change her mind, and promising to train with her. The time she had guessed was right as well. She just predicted the person wrong.

Answering a persistent knocking on her front door, Sakura saw a confused Naruto and expressionless Sasuke standing on her doorstep. Trying not to sound to smug, she addressed them. "Sasuke-kun? Naruto? What brings you here?" Oh, this pleading session was going to be rich.

Naruto glanced at Sasuke. "Good question, teme, why _are_ we here?" Sakura raised an eyebrow before Sasuke responded.

"Hn." He then turned to Sakura with a strange look in his eyes, almost tentative. "I'll fight you."

Sakura couldn't help her look of surprise, but Naruto beat her to the metaphorical punch. "What? No, you won't! We are not fighting Sakura-chan!"

"We aren't. I am." Sakura was content to watch the two argue, but then Sasuke turned his attention to her. "Taijutsu only." She blinked, then smiled slyly. Sasuke had no idea about her strength; all he knew was that she knew medical ninjutsu. Plus, taijutsu wouldn't strain his system as much as ninjutsu and genjutsu, so even if she didn't heal him beforehand, he would still be mostly at full strength.

In an unusually perceptive moment, Naruto saw the smile and knew that Sasuke was in trouble. "Sasuke, there's something you should-"

Sakura cut him off. "Let's go then!" With that, the three of them headed towards Team 7's usual training grounds.

Upon arriving, Sakura offered to heal Sasuke to make the fight more fair, but he declined. That, only annoyed Sakura. When they faced each other, and he looked perfectly prepared to start and hadn't activated his Sharingan, Sakura was enraged. Naruto was sitting off to the side, and he could see that his female teammate planned on giving the other a run for his money. If she could pull this off, this would be the most amusing thing to ever happen in Konoha. Where was Neji when you needed him?

Sasuke ran at Sakura first in an attempt to shatter an attack plan she had been forming. Sakura dodged the kick toward her torso, and ducked down to avoid Sasuke's fist coming towards her head, recognizing the first attack as a feint. He aimed another kick to her side and Sakura slide to the left, only to have to jump to avoid having her feet swept out from under her. Before she could land, she was forced into a backflip as a punch was heading towards her sternum. Despite the fast pace, Sakura was able to sense Sasuke's frustration and even managed a small smirk before dodging a blow to her kidney. Another attempted kick towards her spleen, and she knew that Sasuke was trying to force her to attack. She knew he was planning on her leaving herself open while attacking so he would have a chance to hit her. However, she had no intention on attacking just yet.

Sakura continued dodging blows by leaning to the side with the occasional flip or two. Compared to dodging all the poison darts Sasori sent out, this was relatively simple, and without the added stress of dying if she failed. Plus, Sasuke only has two fists; that Sandaime Kazekage puppet had about one hundred pop out of one arm. Naruto had not witnessed Sakura's battle with Sasori and was highly impressed with her ability to dodge Sasuke's attacks when he was much faster than she was. "Sakura-chan! Kick his sorry ass!" He began fist pumping as she dodged yet another fury of attacks.

Sasuke was definitely getting irritated. In the field, fights were not typically very drawn out and the amount of time it was taking just to lay a hit on Sakura was getting ridiculous. If she was trying to get him to realize that she had improved, well congratulations, he noticed her ability to dodge. Too bad he had more stamina, so it would fail her in the end.

After locking gazes for a second, Sakura could see that Sasuke was going to start getting serious. He still refused to activate his Sharingan, but his annoyance was nearly palpable. Unfortunately, annoying Sasuke was something Sakura already knew how to do, so that was not enough to satisfy her.

The instant Sakura noticed the edges of Sasuke's form go blurry, she whipped around 180 degrees, gathered chakra into her fist and slammed it into the seemingly thin air. Sasuke always flickered behind her, so even if she hit nothing, the force of her punch would propel her a few feet away from where he was planning to attack. Luckily for her, it was from behind. Sasuke flickered square into Sakura's punch and was launched across the training field and smashed into a tree trunk ungracefully. He could do nothing but stare dumbly and massage his jaw in utter shock. Sasuke didn't have time to ponder how he had a now broken jaw, Sakura was flying towards him from above with her leg stretched out, ready to squash him into the ground. He managed to roll away from the attack to watch the tree trunk smash in half and come crashing towards the ground. He leapt backwards to avoid the top and stayed crouched.

Naruto, meanwhile was jumping up and down, screaming at the top of his lungs, "Sakura-chan! You go girl! You show teme who's boss!" He couldn't believe that Sakura was doing so well. Sasuke hadn't managed to lay a hand on her while he was sporting a swollen jaw. He knew Sakura was one of the best medical ninjas, but he had no idea that her taijutsu was as good as it was.

When Sakura glanced over to make sure Sasuke was okay and saw nothing but the tomoe of the Sharingan watching her, she knew he was pissed. Pissed, but impressed. She also knew that she had lost all element of surprise and was not sure how exactly to defeat the Sharingan without ninjutsu. The only way she had ever seen was if the user with the Sharingan was too slow to counter the attack that they foresaw.

Sakura lunged and threw a punch towards Sasuke's jaw again and was not surprised when he caught her fist. He winced at the impact, noting that the block had hurt more than it should have. Grasping his wrist, Sakura made to flip him into the air and launch a kick at him, but he jumped out of her reach. He began to kick with a vengeance and such speed that Sakura was forced to block most of them, resulting in bruises on her forearms. Irritated, she grabbed his ankle and slammed Sasuke to the ground. He flipped on his hands before landing and kicked Sakura right in the stomach, forcing her a few feet in the air. From there, he flickered above her and sent a punch down towards her head, which she could only block. Crashing into the ground hard on her back, Sakura could see Sasuke diving towards her. She sent a chakra laden foot into his sternum, forcing him back.

Sasuke's breathing had become labored and Sakura suspected she might have shattered his sternum. Genuinely concerned now, she made to approach him to see if he was okay, and was greeted with a swift uppercut, an elbow to the back, and Sasuke hovering over her with his forearm resting on her throat. Green met red as they slowly faded back to charcoal. His expression was one of reluctant respect. "Hn." With that, he got up and offered Sakura a hand, which she took.

Naruto came running over after he saw the fighting cease. "That was incredible, Sakura-chan! Even teme here can't deny that, right?" He elbowed Sasuke in his already sore ribs.

"A-Ah."

Sakura smiled at her teammates and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from her pocket. She scribbled down a quick note and passed it to Naruto. "Naruto, give this to the first medic you see at the hospital. They will take care of you now." She glanced back at Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun needs more immediate attention." Sasuke scowled while Naruto smiled and nodded, saying he couldn't wait to tell everyone about what had just occurred. Sakura began to attend to Sasuke's wounds, both old and new. Doing so drained a fair amount of her chakra, since there were many fractures and bruises to fix, both from her and Naruto.

Just as she was finishing up on his jaw, Sasuke spoke for the first time since Naruto left. "Sakura," he grumbled and refused to meet her gaze. "Would you...like to go to dinner tonight?"

Sakura stared in surprise. "Sasuke-kun..." Oh, he had acknowledged her alright, but this was much more than she had expected. He actually thought she had skill and was finally impressed with her abilities. She smiled a bit bittersweetly at the thought. "I'd love to."

* * *

**Just couldn't get the idea of Sakura wiping the smirk off of Sasuke's face when he sees how strong she is out of my head. Despite my hatred of trying to write fight scenes, I couldn't avoid it this time. Review and let me know what you think!**


End file.
